Laura Weaver, Ed.D., is an engaged scholar-practitioner dedicated to facilitating authentic community-campus relationships and partnering on community-driven engaged scholarship. She has nearly 20 years of experience supporting institutions as they work to actualize their culture for community engagement.

Laura directed a university-wide center for community engagement for eight years before joining the Campus Compact family in 2008 when she joined Indiana Campus Compact. As Director of Professional Development and Engaged Learning, she thrived in assisting faculty with teaching and engaged research activities involving reciprocal community-campus partnerships, and in supporting scholar-practitioners as they work to actualize and deepen the culture for community engagement. Prior to her time in higher education, she spent several years with a national nonprofit organization partnering with college students to build awareness and support for healthcare initiatives.

Laura’s passion and research focus on how colleges and universities create an environment where community-driven engagement can occur and how this is actualized through institutional policies and procedures and their overall culture. She frequently presents at state, national, and international conferences, has published several articles related to her work in these areas, and served as a Research Fellow for the 2015-2017 Campus Compact Project on the Community Engagement Professional.

Laura earned her Ed.D. in Adult and Community Education from Ball State University, where her dissertation focused on the lived experiences of community engagement professionals situated outside higher education, framed through the lens of a tempered radical. She also holds an M.S. Ed. in Counseling, Adult, and Higher Education from Northern Illinois University and a B.S. in Communication from Bradley University.